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Topic: Spotlights-Quick question! (Read 1464 times)

Can you see any problem running 2x55w spotlights to a C5? the idea is just to wire them to 'high beam' with relay etc, so is the alternator up to the job? I would have thought so, but what do you guys think?Dave

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You will always find that women that have lost thier virginity, still have the box it came in!

I doubt you could run 2x55watts in addition to the headlight without draining down the battery. You could probably run it that way for a little while if you had a voltage meter to watch. Ducati Scotty had to go from a 55 watt bulb to a 35 watt bulb because the alternator couldn't keep up but I don't have a problem running my 55 watt headlight.

I have my doubts on that one, these charging systems are pretty limited. You could always wire it up temporarily and check the voltage with turned it on and the engine at cruising RPM. If it's around 13.5V or so you should be fine.

If and when you upgrade to the spotlight/s please post your experience and the setup it took. Thanks

Yes I will do, I have a pair of 55w halogen but after gett Ducati Scotty' reply I am going to source some LED bulbs to try, in the UK I believe spotlights have to be fitted as 'pairs', I posted on another forum about a LED strip light wired into the ignition for European riding but it transpires that the light must be from the headlight!

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You will always find that women that have lost thier virginity, still have the box it came in!

The LED's use much less power to produce their light so, per watt they produce more lumen's of brightness.

A Philips article says an incandescent bulb produces about 13 lumens per watt of power used.It goes on to say that a non-hyped honest estimate of a LED shows they produce about 40 lumens per watt.

Assuming this to be true, a 65 watt incandescent bulb will produce about 845 lumen.To produce 845 lumen of light a LED would use about 21 watts.The article also mentions that with a incandescent bulb the lumen output is directed in all directions while the LEDs are usually designed to direct their light in one direction.

Said another way, using LED's for the lights on a motorcycle will greatly reduce the power they use to produce the same amount of light.

They can replace all of the bulbs on a motorcycle (if the light base is the same as the existing one) but as has been shown in another topic here replacing the turn signal bulbs can be a PITA. That's because the LED's low power use won't let the turn signal flasher work properly. They also need the proper + and - battery power to be connected to the correct terminal in the light socket because if this isn't what they expect to see they won't light. The turn signal indicator light may need to have the wiring modified too.

This isn't a problem for most of the lights because the RE's power and ground is correct on the headlight, parking lights and tail light.

Yes I will do, I have a pair of 55w halogen but after gett Ducati Scotty' reply I am going to source some LED bulbs to try, in the UK I believe spotlights have to be fitted as 'pairs', I posted on another forum about a LED strip light wired into the ignition for European riding but it transpires that the light must be from the headlight!

I read that Scotty had issues with his 55 W Halogens. I have the 7" Minda headlight which is a 60/55 and I have not had any problems, my battery is also Brand New ( about 4 months Old) and I use my battery Tender to charge the Battery once every Fortnight.

No one using a charger had a problem with the 7". If you're charging that often on a new battery you probably wouldn't notice that the headlight is slowly robbing the battery. I don't like to use a charger on a regular basis because I don't want to find out my charging system doesn't work when I'm hundreds of miles away from home.